The San Francisco Studio School represents a clearly defined, highly concentrated and contemporary approach to the study of fine art. Its program confronts substantial problems related to art education today by eliminating the fragmentation of continuity common in many degree-granting curricula. It emphasizes the development of the student's work based in visual principles and cogent responses to current issues in art. The program demands meaning over the vagaries of the fashion-driven art market and at the same time rejects the formulaic and largely empty repetition associated with the academic approach to art. The overall philosophy of the school includes working from observation to intensify perception. This means the student will work intensely from the model, still life and landscape as well as from the imagination through the related mediums of drawing, painting, photography and mixed media. The form the artwork takes may evolve to be either realistic or abstract based on the individual artist's sensibility and emphasis. The school is structured into two programs: 2-year Full-Time Certificate Program and Associate-Study Program: Full-Time Certificate Program The full time certificate program develops over a two-year period of time. It is comprised of studio work, critiques, drawing sessions, critical studies and visits to museums and galleries. Instructors are present during the week as appropriate to each area of study to present lectures, talk with students about their work, hold group critiques or to give demonstrations. Specific schedules are available upon registration. Periodically instructors accompany students to museums or galleries and at times they will work alongside students in the studios. The number of students in the program is strictly limited to ensure a highly focused and productive milieu, conducive to discourse and individual growth as artists. Depending on the semester focus and the dynamic of the group there will be approximately 15 students with no more than 20 students allowed at any given time. Interested students should apply promptly. Associate-Study Program Associate Study supports students who are registered in degree-granting programs or who have full-time jobs preventing them from full-time study at the school. It is designed to give those students access to an experience of the unique qualities of the San Francisco Studio School on a once weekly schedule. Associate Study could be thought of as a hands-on seminar. It is comprised of slide shows, readings, discussions and an ongoing review of student's work throughout the semester. Students who are enrolled in a degree-granting program may be eligible for credit at the student's home institution. More detailed information is available in the FAQs or upon inquiry.